Suduva – Vojvodina 26.07.2012

Suduva Marijampole produced a major surprise by avoiding defeat in the first leg and the 1-1 draw means that the Lithuanians can now go through even with a goalless draw. Vojvodina, on the other hand, need to improve on their showing in the first match and we should, therefore, see an interesting game in the return leg.

Suduva Marijampole may be one of the top sides in Lithuania, but they have yet to mount a serious title challenge. The small club finished last three league campaigns in top 3 and they are set to make it four in a row, seeing they now sit in 3rd place, seven points behind leaders Ekranas, who have a game in hand. While they are doing well in domestic championship, Suduva seem to lack some quality needed to achieve a success in Europe, as witnessed by 3-3 aggregate draw with Latvian Daugava in the previous round. After going through on away goal rule, Suduva did well to avoid defeat to Vojvodina, although they were very lucky to do so seeing that their opponents had created numerous chances to score. The hosts are now in a good position to qualify, but the Serbian giants should prove too much for them at the moment.

Vojvodina have long been considered the best of the rest in Serbian Super League given they were unable to challenge giants Partizan and Red Star for the league title, but things appear to be changing as the team from Novi Sad are closing the gap behind their rivals. The lack of team spirit and poor guidance from the bench ended up costing the team a chance to fight for the title last season, but new boss Zlatomir Zagorcic seems to be doing very well at the moment. Boosted by the arrival of Serginho Greene and Igor Djuric as well as the return of Nemanja Bilbija, Vosa looked very good in pre-season, and they played fairly well against Suduva, even if they failed to turn their dominance into goals.

The team are now determined to make things right in the return leg and being superior to their opponents in every aspect of the game, Vojvodina should be able to record a victory.